[MIL professors:]

I know it's been a while since I graduated, so this email might come as a surprise. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for everything you have done for me. I now realize how all the opportunities you gave me were so important. Now that I am working with fellow graduates and older professionals, I realize how much more prepared I am for my career because of my opportunities at school. I owe this all to the lab and most of all, you guys. I feel like you gave me more than just a Masters degree, you gave me experience. You bent over backward for me and the rest of the lab to provide projects and funding to help us develop technically and professionally. You always had the lab and the students as the focus of your plans. For some reason that seems to be hard to find at a university but you guys went against this common view.

Thank you for all that you have done. Maybe one day I'll get a truck-load of cash for university research that I can dump on the lab. Until then, you'll just have to take this email.

(16 Dec 2002)